Company Costs and Benefits in Germany

For the majority of companies training is an investment in the first place. But there are also several benefits for the training company.

Cost of training

Every five years BIBB conducts a representative survey on the costs and benefits of training. The last survey for the training year 2012/13 showed that companies have average net costs of EUR 5,398 per apprentice. This amount varies according to training professions and domain of training, the duration of the training programmes, and the size of the training companies and regions. The largest share of the costs is the training allowance. It is usually fixed in the collective bargaining agreement.

Benefits of training

On average 2/3 of gross costs are off-set by the productive outputs of apprentices. This number varies strongly among different training occupations. An additional benefit arises most of all when companies hire their apprentices as skilled workers on completion of their training. That way the companies save recruitment costs incl. advertising costs and personnel costs for the selection process, costs of external advisers and intermediaries, and induction costs. Benefits are also accrued due to companies’ prior knowledge about their apprentices and vice-versa. At the end of the apprenticeship companies can recruit among their apprentices the most successful ones.